The Press., 1887-03-03

To the Editor of The Press What has Stafford done, or what is she going to do, to aid the friends of education in pass ing through the general assembly the bill now pending relative to the management of the public schools? Have Senator Hyde and Representatives Davis and Avery been solicited-ar petitioned to support the bill? It especially concerns, and it's pass age would be of untold advantage to towns like Stafford. For twenty two years I have been familiar with the schools. I have watched with sorrow the difficulties. that have made general and steady pro- gress impossible. I have seen many thous- ands of dollars almost wasted, when every dollar might have counted and have been worth in returns golden eagle. The prime source of failure has been individual management, or sectional authority and independence. Each district of the many has been a law unto itself, and has run with it's petty and transient officers now up and now down in blind or careless obedience to it's topmost faction, regard less of any interlocking or general system. The guardians appointed by the town have had and could have in the main only a moral influence. Had there been practi- cable legal power for them easily to lay hold upon they would not have been sus- tained in the use of 1t. The schools in the small districts have as a whole visibly de- teriorated. They have suffered so much in the fights of factions,-have been so of- ten under the management of transient and indifferent committees chosen at hap hazard to fill a thankless office against their will ,-and taught so often by poorly paid and often much abused young per sons, who ought to have been receiving the instruction that they endeavored to give,-that they have, with some excep- tions, become weak and of doubtful value, hardly of more use than nurseries for small children, while those older are ashamed to attend and seek service in the mill locali- ties, to which many of them soon draw thelr parents, partly that the younger chil- dren may have the benefits of larger and better schools. Hence the small districts are becoming smaller and smaller. And under the operation of present law the I manufacturing centers are getting the cream of the public education. Here is a man who pays comparatively large taxes on the tough and rocky acres that he tills, while his next door neighbor, living not a stone's throw distant, pays only poll tax. Because there is an invisible district bound ary line running between the first gets only 24 weeks of public schooling annually for his children, while the other gets 30 or 36, as the time is- determined according to the number of children in district. This toe, ,disturbs and breaks up the population of the small districts-pr recipitates, so to speak, the blood in the system in undue and unhealthy quantities from the extremi- ties to the vital parts. It is a rank injus- tice. The town like good wise impartial mother should give all of her children an Il enuaI chance ahould have hnr arr, oroYand all and her eye on all. This unjust law has had it's natural effect on the minds of many citizens of Stafford who were for. merry opposed to the changes already so
 generally made by the leading towns ot the state.
 To bring order out of disorder, and to confer on towns like Stafford vastly great CT educational advantages, is the aim oi the bill now pending in the assembly and 1t seems to me that our senator, citi- zen of the town, and our representatives, could in no other way serve their fellow citizens better than by giving the bill their hearty support.
 I Whatever difference of opinion may be entertained among citizens in regard to the advantages derived from the incorpo. ration of the borough, it is clear to all that the union of the two largest school dis tricts in town, the Springs and Foxville, embraced in the borough, has been, al. though strongly opposed, of great advan. tage, giving the town a superb school ID place of two poor ones. A school thai compares favorably with the best in this part of the state, and one which the young folks all over town desire to attend, and many in other towns. If partial union ac lcomplishes such good results, what great